Truther:Dems have done/said PLENTY of clown nose stuff over the years...

Oh, no doubt. But come on. The GOP sales pitch these days is basically "government is fundamentally a bad thing, at best a necessary evil, so put us in charge of it and we'll make sure it behaves itself."

Whether or not you agree with that, it's the reason Congress' approval rating hovers around 10%. 80% of the Democrats polled are furious that it never does anything, and 100% of the Republicans polled are furious that it might.

In the past, the police had somehow gotten it into their heads that it was illegal to take photographs of anything, anywhere. Some said it was because of "copyright" some said it was because of "homeland security", but the result was the same: they'd make you delete the photographs.

One enterprising photographer came up with the idea of making a "photography license". It was similar to a library card, except that you added a photograph of your face in the top-left corner with glue or a laminator. When the cops stopped you for taking pictures, you could then respond, 'it's okay, I have a photography license', and show them it.

An imaginative solution to an imaginary problem.

[craphound.com image 500x341]

"Hussein", nice.

Making these coins would be worth it, if only to watch the wacky schemes the very stupid from, say, Oklahoma or Idaho would concoct to steal it, "Like what they saw in that Tom Cruise movie".

Might as well argue about whether it would be worthwhile to fake up an Alien Invasion threat to justify massive military spending which would necessitate increasing the debt limit and act as a sort of stimulus package to boot.

I'm just happy to see the federal government could solve the problem along the lines of what I've recommended for a long time: Under cover of darkness, and without telling anyone, a crew fires up the machinery at one of our paper-money-making plants and churns out a trillion or so dollars.Those dollars go into circulation, everybody has more money, they can pay more for stuff - and tax revenue goes up.The important thing is, the gov't CAN'T TELL anyone they did this, because otherwise people would just run around whining about "inflation," "wheelbarrows" and "Germany."

Well, it depends. We have a high Centralisation, as well as the National Bank idea, that usually gives a good deflation count. I think Geitner would count as a fairly decent (4 or 5) Master of Mint, and Obama is at LEAST a 7/7/7 Ruler.

Huck And Molly Ziegler:I'm just happy to see the federal government could solve the problem along the lines of what I've recommended for a long time: Under cover of darkness, and without telling anyone, a crew fires up the machinery at one of our paper-money-making plants and churns out a trillion or so dollars.Those dollars go into circulation, everybody has more money, they can pay more for stuff - and tax revenue goes up.The important thing is, the gov't CAN'T TELL anyone they did this, because otherwise people would just run around whining about "inflation," "wheelbarrows" and "Germany."

You're welcome.

You've never studied macroeconomics have you? The government tried this stupid trick back in the lat 1970s and early 1980s in an attempt to end a recession. All it did was create double-digit inflation that took almost six years to get under control. The Fed must balance how much money is in circulation based on GDP to keep inflation in check.

Not that this isn't an incredibly silly idea (why not just say they did it? why do there have to be physical objects created to make an accounting trick 'real'?), but I think the idea is that the money created wouldn't enter circulation. Or something. It makes no goddamn sense.

Debeo Summa CredoInflation is the obvious problem. But gagnon goes on to try to address that by saying the fed could offset the inflation by other measures.

I like this guy's style

/yeah yeah toraque beat me to it but he's also a dumb butt-face who sniffs his own butt.

RanDomino:Not that this isn't an incredibly silly idea (why not just say they did it? why do there have to be physical objects created to make an accounting trick 'real'?), but I think the idea is that the money created wouldn't enter circulation. Or something. It makes no goddamn sense.

If you use that money to pay the government's expenses and employees, it enters circulation.

Well, it depends. We have a high Centralisation, as well as the National Bank idea, that usually gives a good deflation count. I think Geitner would count as a fairly decent (4 or 5) Master of Mint, and Obama is at LEAST a 7/7/7 Ruler.

We can take the inflation from minting.

/EU3.

I agree. As long as we don't indavde South America, we should be able to keep it under control.

RanDomino:Grammatik PolizeiMinting your way out of trouble always ends well.

Not that this isn't an incredibly silly idea (why not just say they did it? why do there have to be physical objects created to make an accounting trick 'real'?), but I think the idea is that the money created wouldn't enter circulation. Or something. It makes no goddamn sense.

Debeo Summa CredoInflation is the obvious problem. But gagnon goes on to try to address that by saying the fed could offset the inflation by other measures.

I like this guy's style

/yeah yeah toraque beat me to it but he's also a dumb butt-face who sniffs his own butt.

Because the rules were written before fiat shenanigans, and for whatever reason a lot of people still believe in The Rules.

tricycleracer:shiat like this makes you realize that our economy is one mass delusion.

EVERY economy relies on mass delusion. Like relying on the mass delusion that an unusual rock has some kind of intrinsic value when it's value is almost entirely the subjective opinion of people who think it shines up nicely, and everyone else really really likes it, so they probably should, too.

Kinda makes is seem silly that they get so butthurt because of imaginary debt getting too close to the imaginary limit. So making a symbolic statement like this would make the Republicans really look like some fools for making a big deal about this.

I say go ahead and make them madder, lets see if they spontaneously combust.

Coins, notes and standardised currency are an attempt at measuring confidence. We accept that because someone else should benefit from wading through sewage and all the other stuff we don't want to do. Money is a token of belief and it is used to buy freedom.

$2 trillion in platinum coins is a lie designed to create an impossible freedom.

Honestly, watching that show and the one in Detroit -- the Vegas guy really is rather fair with the people coming in. He generally gives them right around 50-60% of the resale value of an item. You go to most resale shops and they tend to buy at 20% or so. You look at the Detroit one and they tend to buy at 10%.

JackieRabbit:Huck And Molly Ziegler: I'm just happy to see the federal government could solve the problem along the lines of what I've recommended for a long time: Under cover of darkness, and without telling anyone, a crew fires up the machinery at one of our paper-money-making plants and churns out a trillion or so dollars.Those dollars go into circulation, everybody has more money, they can pay more for stuff - and tax revenue goes up.The important thing is, the gov't CAN'T TELL anyone they did this, because otherwise people would just run around whining about "inflation," "wheelbarrows" and "Germany."

You're welcome.

You've never studied macroeconomics have you? The government tried this stupid trick back in the lat 1970s and early 1980s in an attempt to end a recession. All it did was create double-digit inflation that took almost six years to get under control. The Fed must balance how much money is in circulation based on GDP to keep inflation in check.

Yeah, there's a law preventing this now, which is what keeps our credit rating high. But not for COINAGE, only banknotes.

So if you were to do this, you'd have to print millions and millions of DOLLAR COINS nobody wants. Maybe make a series for each and every US president...

Coins, notes and standardised currency are an attempt at measuring confidence. We accept that because someone else should benefit from wading through sewage and all the other stuff we don't want to do. Money is a token of belief and it is used to buy freedom.

$2 trillion in platinum coins is a lie designed to create an impossible freedom.

Well, currency is also far more efficient than bartering. It's portable, and can be divided in ways goods can't normally. (My goat is worth 2.5 chickens, but I really don't want half a chicken, and you don't really have anything else I want...)

jigger:By the way, this is one of the stupidest articles I've ever read that "serious people" are taking seriously, and that's saying a lot.

I'm with you. When I saw Chris Hayes talk about it on MSNBC a couple of days ago, I thought it was worthy of Fox News and the same guy in the Tea Party who was hoping to create a quorum problem in the electoral college.

Exactly. And this is why I love economics threads. I can't count how many times I've offered to trade a little bit of inherently precious gold, or a few boxes of shotgun shells, or a pallet of tinned meat, and all I want in return are a few of those worthless scraps of colored paper that the other guy just told me are completely valueless.

So far, no takers. In fact, from what I've seen of gold-bugs and other fiat-money-conspiracists, they're probably more likely to stab me in the throat for trying to take their debased, worthless pieces of illegal government scrip (etc. etc.) than anybody else.

You want a 14% pay-cut overnight? If you make $50,000, like the median American, you would go to $43,000 (effectively).

Wages will catch up. Its actually a 14% debt cut. Which would be nice.

If you were a creditor, would you extend credit to the US later? It would kill our credit rating. Try issuing bonds - even short-term bonds for operations that even ridiculously profitable companies make use of. It would be an unmitigated disaster. Interest rates would skyrocket. Have a 3% mortgage? It's now 17%. Have a 12% credit card? It's now 26%.